Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) just celebrated the completion of construction of the new radio telescope in the Western Australian desert.

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The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) just celebrated the completion of construction of the new radio telescope in the Western Australian desert. In the photograph UW postdoc Bryna Hazelton kneels next to one of 2048 dual polarization dipoles arranged in 128 antennas. Prof. Morales's radio cosmology group has played a major role in the construction of the MWA, determining the placement of the antennas, leading the development of the Monitor and Control system, and playing a major role in the instrument commissioning. With the end of construction, the MWA will spend six months commissioning the full system before starting science observations in July 2013. (Follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Murchison.Widefield.Array )

The MWA is designed to observe the faint radio emission from the first stars and galaxies as they light up 13 billion years ago, burning away the primordial fog of neutral hydrogen. This time is called the Epoch of Reionization (EoR), and Prof. Morales is an international leader of the EoR observation community.